Sunday, September 1, 2013

Inafune Says Capcom Hasn't Responded to "Mighty No. 9"

The resemblance between Mega Man and Keiji Inafune's Mighty No. 9, as some have already pointed out, is the sort of thing two companies go to court over. These are battles waged in practically every industry, after all. But in an interview conducted with Kotaku this morning, Keiji Inafune said Capcom has not been in touch with his company, Comcept. Not yet, at least.

When asked about a possible legal battle — should Capcom retaliate — Inafune had the following to say:

"We haven't heard anything from Capcom at this point. If it turns
into a legal battle, then obviously it'll be lawyers that hash out what
the solutions are. However, from my perspective, Mega Man is something
that I created. It would be like having a child, then having somebody
adopt that child and then saying that child isn't really yours. That
child has your DNA in it, no matter what anybody says. So, since my
style, my spirit isn't something that I can't change as a human being,
if I create anything and it's something that looks like [Mega Man],
well, it was created by the same person, me. To say that Mighty No. 9
looks like Mega Man is to say that my work looks like my work.

But we have been careful. The base gameplay is not the same as Mega
Man. The naming, the character, all that is not the same. The details
are very different. Personally, I've gone out of my way to make sure
that this is something original. And if Capcom does come back and say
something, I would be surprised."

Hard to say what could happen from here. After all, the Kickstarter just launched yesterday. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see if anything plays out. Naturally, we'll keep you posted!

I doubt that very much. Even if the split wasn't exactly amicable, he did a lot for them and accomplished a lot for them. Companies are made of people, and people who work together and don't hate each other generally get along. It's doubtful Capcom hates Inafune.

And I said respect, not affection. They'd be fools not to respect him.

I don't know, I think the character(s) at least look visually distinct enough. Capcom can't have a claim to every robot ever, or every helmeted boy in a suit ever.

Gameplay-wise... there are many examples of games where you can have some freedom of where you want to go next (from earlier examples like Power Blade on the NES that were very Mega Man in terms of stage selection all the way up to modern open world games that often give you a set of missions you can tackle as you like), and obtaining weapons/items related to vanquished foes is also very commonplace (a handful of the Metroidvania Castlevania games, heck even at least one of the Metroid games too).

The act of transforming/switching into other characters to use them has also been in use in a handful of other games as well (again, at least one Castlevania game, or even something as obscure as Claymates on the SNES). How about just body parts? Then you have Enix's EVO: Search for Eden (SNES version specifically) as an example.

Weapon weaknesses? Elemental rock-paper-scissors can be seen in numerous games as a core mechanic, across many different genres.

The idea of robots going haywire because of some computer virus or sudden self-awareness is definitely not unique to Mega Man either, throughout literature, movies, and video games.

Evil mad scientist being behind it all? Way way way too many examples to name.

Capcom has shut down one doujin game that used Mega Man IP, Rockmen R, but as far as I know it has left the outright clones (like Rosenkreuzstilette which doesn't use MM IP but uses its gameplay ideas pretty wholesale) alone.

The basic ideas may be very similar when distilled and put together, but by all appearances I think there will be enough distinction that there won't be any sort of legal battle over any of this.

Well, to be fair, while the concept of Megaman was from other people, the art was all him. In that respect, he created Megaman. I think that's what he means here, since he's talking about the artistic similarities of the characters.

You fail, there is a new Strider game.... I dont know why people want forget megaman serie for this "thing" who is a rip-off (specially when i see the new copy-Roll design...what a shame! It's a joke and not original).

For me, Megaman Will be always Megaman, the best serie ever, but you can wait, Mighty n°9 wont be release before Spring 2015, keep your faith for Megaman for now.

@Anon: At least we know Might No. 9 has a game in development. What about Megaman oh wait only Xover's pathetic fanservice patches are confirmed in development. NO ONE is forgetting Megaman here. People are going to this because it's Keiji, Megaman's god damn dad, making a Megaman-esque game and going 'You wanted a game? Well here it is.' Because we want to prove to Capcom proper Megaman games and the devroom concept still have a place in the industry on PCs and consoles.

And what does Strider have to do with this? No one brought him up, and no one cares because it's Double Helix making it.

It's not the first time that ex-Capcom talent has gone on to produce quite obvious "spiritual sequels" to franchises that they created and/or worked on at Capcom, and I'm sure it won't be the last!

Capcom never had any issues with Osman (spiritual sequel to Strider), or Bayonetta (spiritual sequel to Devil May Cry), and I'd imagine it's highly unlikely they'd have any issues with Mighty No. 9. ;)

Well, Osman was released in 1996 - seven years after the original Strider, and three years before Strider 2. It would be a bit late for Capcom to care now that they're finally preparing to release another game. ;)

If Capcom did try anything with regards to 'Beck' looking like Rock, then Capcom would have to answer to the creators of Astroboy. It's always been noted that Rockman/Megaman was heavily influenced by Astro.

Regarding MegaMan being based on Astro Boy, it has never been specifically stated that MegaMan was based on him. The most that was ever said was that MegaMan was influenced by childhood anime and manga... which would be about the same, but a specific mention about Astro Boy has never actually been there, even if the similarity is a bit obvious...

the ruling from Capcom vs Data East's court case over Fighter's History is the reason why Capcom will not pursue legal action and likely loose. The entire thing embarrassed Capcom and they gave Fighter's History free publicity. Seriously, look it up.

Rockman is an a lot better looking knockoff to boot. Astro Boy knock's off Pinocchio and is arguably cooler, Mega Man knock's off Astro Boy and is arguably cooler, and now Beck intentionally knock's off Rockman. Time will tell but Beck already seems to be arguably cooler than Rockman so far (at least in terms of abilities), and given time I think he definitely will be. Especially now that Beck's in the hands of dedicated professionals that love and care for what they are working on, without being dictated by businessmen, a privilege Rockman never had.